A voice actor who featured in Persona 4 has let slip that a remake of the school days JRPG is in the works, mostly because he’s frustrated the developers don’t want him back to perform as his original character. Yuri Lowenthal, who played clumsy bicycle crasher Yosuke in the original 2008 game, expressed some revealing annoyance with developers Atlus in a post on social media that has since been deleted.
“And for those who keep asking, no, I will not be returning as Yosuke for the Persona 4 remake,” he said. “I asked. Maybe I even begged, but they don’t want me to come back.”
That’s not an undeniable signal fire proving the remake’s existence, but it is some very billowy smoke. Lowenthal has appeared in the Persona series before, and he was the voice of Eiichiro in Persona 3 Reload, the recent remake of that entry. So he’s close enough to the studio to maybe know a thing or two about what’s going on. He’s also voiced a certain neighbourhood webslinger in various Spider-Man games over the years, as well as Mylo from Arcane, and absolute sidequest liability Johnny in the Final Fantasy VII remakes.
He’s not the only one seemingly snubbed by Atlus. Erin Fitzgerald, the voice of Chie, has also complained of the developers’ reluctance to have her return, as noticed by Gamesradar.
“For those asking, I have not been asked to reprise my role as Chie Satonaka in the Persona 4 remake,” she said in her own post. “I am blessed to have recorded as many Persona 4 games as I did playing her.”
Hopes for a Persona 4 remake have persisted among fans, I’m told, since the third game got its makeover. Meanwhile, many folks are doubtless frothing at the mouth for a Persona 6 announcement, which has yet to materialise, with Atlus instead announcing yet another Persona 5 spinoff earlier this month.
Whether a remake is strictly necessary is another thing. A PC remaster of Persona 4 came out in 2020 in the form of Persona 4 Golden, which our Edwin called “a twisting tale of dreams gone rogue in a town sapped of purpose” in his review. If you want a second opinion, my cousin – who just phoned me to chat and who delayed this article from being written by at least one hour – instructed me to review all Persona games with the following single-sentence summary: “Too much text.” And you know what? I might agree. 100 hours to complete a game? Please. I barely think I have 100 hours left to live.
